Bengaluru civic panel to assess building bylaws, other violations

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has decided to constitute a committee comprising officials from its town planning, revenue and engineering divisions to assess the extent of building bylaws and other types of violations in the city.

The development comes a day after the Karnataka High Court cleared the decks for the government to go ahead and implement the Akrama-Sakrama scheme. The scheme allows urban local bodies in Karnataka, including BBMP, to regularize certain types of violations in building constructions within the set period.

BBMP officials told TOI that according to a report submitted by the Palike during one of the court hearings, there are 1.53 lakh unauthorized buildings/sites in Bengaluru. "The committee, in coordination with officials of all eight zones, will do an assessment of the properties which fall under the ambit of the scheme," they added.

Sources in the urban development department (UDD) say property owners who are eager to avail the scheme have to wait for at least two weeks for the government to issue a fresh notification on the rules and regulation pertaining to it. "The new rules will have more clarity on issues like the penalty to regularize a property. We are waiting for a copy of the high court order, following which a high-level meeting will be held on the implementation of the scheme," said a source with UDD.

Sources also said the government is planning to bring out a fresh handbook based on the new notification, which will be circulated online as well as through ward offices.

In its order on Tuesday, the high court said ordering demolition of a large number of properties due to violations would be disastrous and lead to a "national waste". The court noted that if buildings are demolished, the government would have to look into the problems of those who lose their properties.